New researches in the field of conservation and
restauration of cultural heritage
Adrian Stoleriu, Irina-Andreea Stoleriu
Caietele restaurării 2015 (The Notebooks of Restauration 2015), ACS Publishing House, Bucharest, 2015, 304 p.
The launching of the 4th number of The Notebooks of Restauration 2015 at ACS Publishing House from Bucharest is remarkable, necessary and also expected among researchers, restauration specialists, historians and artists who are preoccupied by the importance of the issues of the nowadays cultural heritage in our country.
Though it seems to be strictly dedicated to a specific public, with a high level of education regarding conservation and restauration, history or art – the work has various notions and information which is both theoretical and practical -, we believe that the quality of presentation, the fluency of the scientific discourse, the richness of the used bibliography and last, but not least, the impressive imagistic portfolio, which is reproduced respecting high standards of visual quality attract a larger public of readers than one could have guessed at first sight. From the beginning, we admit the fact that the mere browsing of this work has the quality of stirring interest and transforming the curiosity of the fast reader into a sharp analytic spirit specific to the researcher who is always eager to discover new information, new opinions, theories, axioms and judgement of value.
And still, the work is destined mainly to specialists in the field of preserving the cultural heritage, this number having been conceived based on two main work directions: the one of research and analythic presentations regarding a
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series of theoretical aspects, respectively the one of practical interventions on works that belong to the mobile inheritance or monuments.
There are 22 proposed titles in this number of The Notebooks of Restauration, with a variety of topics, we mention here only a few of the topics of great interest, not being exhaustive: the re-painting of wood furniture from the churches of Transylvania, the painting, the drawing out and the re-painting from The Church „Sf. Nicolae Domnesc” of Iași, a few of the historical-artistic aspects from the ”time” of Golia, the iconostases of Brâncoveanu that are part of the national heritage, the discovery and restauration of some wall paintings from the 14th century inside the Church called ”Biserica evanghelică din Deal” from Sighișoara, the new concepts of transposing wall painting from The Church „Sf. Nicolae Domnesc” from Curtea de Argeș, or the analysis of the system of conservation-restauration of the cultural heritage of Romania, on the occasion of celebrating four decades from its appearance.
Beyond the diversity of topics, we cannot ignore the fact that the volume is the synthesis of research and analysis made by a great number of authors, over 30, many of them already are remarkable names in the field of research regarding the autochthonous cultural heritage, of history of art or specialists in restauration and conservation of works of art (PhD Professor Tereza Sinigalia, PhD Professor Dan Mohanu, PhD Professor Oliviu Boldura, PhD Associate Professor Ruxandra Nemțeanu). This important aspect shows the increasing interest for nowadays cultural heritage, there is a significant number of researchers, restauration specialists, PhD specialists and PhD candidates that have contributed to the creation of this indispensable work.
Having in mind the spirit of continuity which reflects the perpetuation of the essences of the past, making them still exist in the present, and also the respect and honest recognition of values which cannot be thrown away in oblivion, the last pages of the work represent a A Tribute to Professor Ioan Istudor, signed by a group of well-known people in this field, such as PhD Professor Oliviu Boldura, the master of iconography Grigore Popescu Muscel and PhD Professor Ioan Opriș.
Making a synthesis of all the details, as a defining feature of this volume, we can remark the fact that some of the approached topics are focused on the topic of re-painting and doing major interventions on the works of art and on
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the monuments, in general, these asctions have repeatedly led to the loss of authenticity, this phenomenon has been described by PhD Professor Dan Mohanu as a real ”nowadays disease”. The basic idea underlined in his article, placed at the beginning of the volume, becomes emblematic for a much more complex ensemble of characteristics of our time, the author accurately describing the confusion of the present regarding the way in which the symptoms of this phase should be really treated, unfortunately, this is the nowadays configuration of the Romanian society: ”In this context, the restauration of the inheritage is based on a major contradiction: on the one hand, there is a society whose access to information seems limitless, on the other hand, there is some sort of amnesia which condemns us to start things all over having the attitude that nothing was there before our coming. Some sort of primitive and demolishing prosperity, which lacks any respect for the inheritance, being ready to offer more credit to surrogate materials of rigips and polystyrene than to the authentic substance of the past”1.
In this general context which is characterized by confusion, we believe that the endeavour represented by the publishing of The Notebooks of Restauration is of significant importance, for it has brought to light the necessity of minutely done studies concerning the topic of cultural heritage, encouraging the formation of interdisciplinary teams for theoretical and practical study, having the objective of training future specialists, and, of course, of restauring and preserving the values of our autochthonous heritage as efficiently as possible. Thus, the launching of this series of works is of outstanding importance, except for the fact that they have the above- mentioned qualities, they also serve the duty of attracting attention on the necessity of immediate intervention for restauring objects or monuments that seem to have been forgotten both by time and people, of carefully making choices regarding the work methods that are to be used, the checking of the quality of the results and last, but not least, of forming a value standard regarding the process of conservation and restauration of a work of art.
1 Dan Mohanu, Pierderea autenticității monumentelor istorice: o maladie actuală [The Loss of Authenticity Regarding Historical Monuments],in Caietele restaurării [The Notebooks of Restauration] 2015, ACS Publishing House, Bucharest, p.13.
